Oil Prices bring back memories
I remember when an automobile was a joy, yes kids, it used to be fun to have a car. The cheapest I ever paid for gasoline was .23 cents a gallon. Those were the days when, if you got 20 mpg, you were going great. But in a sense no matter how expense or inexpensive gas was, it was always still to high. I have heard of people talk about paying .10 cents a gallon. It was still high because many were probably making less than a thousand dollars a year. When my parents were married my father worked for around $40 a week. ($ 2,080) a year as an automobile mechanic. Which was a good wage just before World War II.
Recently going down to MCI, we passed several loads of new cars. It took me back to the day my brother and I were walking home from uptown and they were unloading new Buicks at Brown’s Buick. We sat on a wall and watch until they were all unloaded. In 1958 we had just taken my grandfather to his home in Ohio, when we were a distance from a carrier carrying new Edsels. My dad knew what they were and put the ‘57 Ford, with the 317 in racing gear and we caught it someplace in the hills. When traveling, we always were on the lookout for car carriers and kind of played a game to which brand we would see the most of. Seems like the most were General Motors products. At first carriers only carried four, it was always a thrill. New cars were important to our family. This is one reason I have always been car poor.
New car showing were the best time of the year after Christmas and my birthday. The earliest memory I have of the garage my father worked at, was the new car showing of the 1956 Fords. They put a back and white two-door hardtop in the window the night before. The cars came under a tarp and were carefully hidden until the showing date. It was always a big event in the community and the new cars coming out was always a time when people flocked to the showrooms. It was tradition. Next to Haase Ford-Mercury dealership was Brake Pontiac-Cadillac. I remember going past there one night and there was no room left. The showroom held three cars, was wall to wall people. Major leaguer Nellie Fox was a Pontiac fan. He came every year to Brakes. But we were not allow to go because my father sold Fords next door. It was one of the times I wish my father didn’t sell Fords.
The night before the showing my dad took the family to the dealership after it had closed. I remember it was dark when we went in and he had to turn on a few lights. He would pull back the canvas for us to see the latest models. It was a special time I will always remember. When the ‘57’s came out he brought one home as soon as he could, it was a dark green and white Custom 300 and took my mother and I for a ride. I was always proud of my first ride in a new car. The next day we got his demonstrator, it was light green and white. We started off for Washington D.C. to get my grandmother at National Airport and had a flat tire. I have a picture of myself standing in front of our new ‘55. My mother had just picked it up and drove to Smith Grocery, a small mom and pop store. When she came out the car would not go in reverse. She said I was never so embarrassed in my life. A new Ford that didn’t work.
Haase and Brakes are now gone including the buildings. In my town in those days there were four GM Dealerships, three Chrysler dealerships, Ford, Nash, Packard, Studebaker, Crosley and Edsel; at different times. Now like Maryville, there is only one full line GM dealer. I was told that at one time there was four dealerships in Grant City, including a Pontiac-Studebaker dealer, what a combination? Even Allendale had a Dodge-Plymouth Dealer. The only one I ever heard of in Sheridan was Mason. That was a long time ago.
Today it is all different. And for my money it is not better. Now cars are expensive luxuries. You plan every use of it, Sunday rides are out and cruising is a thing of the past. There was a day, a good day, where life in America was great.
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